He nodded and thought on this move, he had heard of it breifly but it had faded from his mind due to his secrecy in combat, and himself not used to open war like these other men. He nodded and faced Graeme."Fine, we shall use it. Do you have the supplies to make these piliums, or have you already have them?"

OOC:It sounded like them

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Evil Is A Faceless Stranger,Living In A Distant NeighborhoodEvil Has A Wholesome, Hometown FaceWith Merry Eyes And An Open SmileEvil Walks Among Us, Wearing A MaskWhich Looks Like All Our Faces

A shadowed man walked in and sat down listening to the conversation."I also agree." He said as he showed his face and looked around at the men speaking."My name is Dekkrokh,I am a mercenary that could use a job." He said as he smiled and nodded at Sentinel.

On the morning of the next day,Snake Tail adressed the Ogre Horde.''My warriors'',he called out in a loud,booming voice that seeemd to carry everywhere.''After much thinking on it last night,I have realized that the humans might have sprung a trap for us in the costal cities.We shall not try to take them.''

Loud murmurs of disbelief among the ranks of warriors greeted this unexpected and shocking anouncement.The Clan Chiefs who had looked forward to looting the wealthy costal settlements as eagerly as their men,were livid.What did young Snake Tail think he was doing? .

Ignoring this,Snake Tail continued.''Instead,we shall march on the capital city of the humans and seize it .Now that most of their forces have been destroyed,the seat of their power lies vulnerble.And we shall take it!''Upon hearing this,loud war cries went up everywhere and weapons were brandished. The human scourge would be crushed for good now!

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

"Personally I have no use for unproven mercenaries, whatever you said your name is." Graeme said dismissively. "I have my own hired soldiers, and it wont be long before the Imperial Legions of Calan are mobilized to reach this ignorant backwater."

"The smithies of this keep can start making the pilums. I am going to go observe the ogres, since none of you have seen fit to send out pickets or outriders to keep an eye on them. Dont expect to know what they are doing because they are ogres, they've surprised us more than once thus far."

He smiled at Graeme's comment as he stood up and walked over to him."If you need someone who can out ride the ogres I will go without pay so you see how much finesse I have." He said as he pulled his hood over his face and stood there waiting for his reply to what he has just complied.

He then smiled again and said as he nodded at Graeme."Or you could take the chance of being struck down by their arrows."He looked at him his face straight.

He looked over at the mercenary and nodded."Fine, scout them and gather information on which way they are moving their forces."He looked at Graeme and sighed shaking his head exasperated."We must gather the forces when the piliums are finished and move forward to strike."

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Evil Is A Faceless Stranger,Living In A Distant NeighborhoodEvil Has A Wholesome, Hometown FaceWith Merry Eyes And An Open SmileEvil Walks Among Us, Wearing A MaskWhich Looks Like All Our Faces

"Have a good time." Graeme said. He let himself through the trapdoor of the turret, and back into the castle. Baird had informed him that there were indeed Imperial legions mobilizing, as well as a sizeable contingent of Dejy levies. The Ogres were going to be in for a surprise when they were caught by the might of the empire.

Stupid, arrogant non-humans, Graeme thought, not seeing too much difference between elves and ogres for the moment. He made his way to the smithies on the ground floor of the keep.

"I need you to make spear heads of soft iron, or lead if you have it." he told the head smith.

"That is the point, I want to make pilum spears, to disable shields." Graeme said. The smith pondered the matter for a moment, rubbing his grizzled chin.

"Ah thank'Ah can do it." He said.

"Good, as quickly as you can." Graeme said as he headed to the courtyard where most of the men were. It time to make an appearance. He strode across the square, nodding to the hardened men who knew unlike some commanders who rode in the rear of the army, he rode in the vanguard.

"Good to see the men in better spirits." Graeme said to the banner and undercaptains. "It is time to start a new set of drills, are any of you familiar with using the pilum?" It was some time before faux pilums were fashioned and the men began to practice the attacks and feints that would allow them to dissable the impressive defences of the ogres. The Crossbowmen lined up and performed their own drills, firing, reloading and such.

He of the room as silent as he had entered an walked over to the stables."I need your fastest horse." He said as he straddled the black horse and rode off into the ogre land satying as close as he could.

He looked at the ogres lined up and heard two hire ranking officers talking about heading towards the capital instead of the coastal cities."Smart but ugly." He whispered to himself ashe snuck in deeper to find out what he could.

Akuma stood in a corner of the court yard watching and waiting when Sentinel walked in. As Sentinel started to talk to a few of the men Akuma walked up to him."I don't want to interuppt anything, but I would like to offer my services to you." He stated."I am going out now to nibble away at their flanks, take this", handing Sentinel a small black stone with runes etched into it," if you need me for any thing think of my name and say what you need to tell me, the stone will take the message to me now matter where I am.He bowed slightly to Sentinel and left the courtyard. Akuma then snaked his way back out of the great fortress and began his hunt.~This time I will find that ogre tribe leader that slaughtered my village and kill him.~ Akuma thought to him self as he began to travel away from the great human garrison.

Under Snake Tail's orders,the ogres begun to dismantle their tents and collect their belongings,preparing themselves for the long march to the Imperial City.As he continued to bellow out orders,a sentry came rushing to his side and begun whispering into his ear. ''My Chief,I and Running Water have spotted a human slowly making his way towards our encampment.We think he may may be a scout come to report on our movements.''

''Scout,eh?Don't kill him.If we get the rat alive,I can find out more about what the humans are planning.Knowing them,they probally have some sly little trick up their sleeves.'' The sentry nodded.He knew precisely what to do.Creeping back to where he had spotted the humans riding towards the fringe of the camp,he removed the blowgun at his waist and levelled it at the mounted human scout,signalling to Running Water to do the same.Then they fired.

Akuma and Dekkrokh was hit by 2 little darts that had their tips smeared with a certain potion that would knock anyone out within seconds,upon entering their blood stream.It was hardly fatal though and the person would simply remain unconcious for a 5 hours.Watching with satisfaction,as Akuma tumbled out of his saddle,Running Water and the other sentry begun jogging over to the slumped forms of the human.When they reached them,they tied them up,using them a strong cord and brought them to Snake Tail who would wait till he woke up,so that he could question the human scout.

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

Sentinel stopped as he came down to the courtyard, he himself and his men would travel to the Imperial City to lead the Imperial Legions to where they were. He whistled loudly and all his men came around him, he spoke to his undercaptians as quickly as he could."Prepare the horses, we ride to Calan!"The men all went to the stables running and the great gates were opened as they started galloping out, with Sentinel in the lead with his officers galloping south. He had told a human to tell Graeme of what he was doing. He knew what Graeme would of thought. Why not send a messanger? The ogres had been acting suspicious and they had surprised them before. To do what the humans predicted what they would do would be irrelevant. No, they were going to attack somewhere other then the Coastal Cities. And his guess was on the capital. The Capital was guarded strongly with the delta making it hard for the ogres to get to the capital thanks to the many rivers. If they hurried they could destory the bridges and that would slow the ogres down. Then they could use hit-and-run tactics as they tried building new ones. When they finally reached the city, the city wall would be operated and the men would be prepared.

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Evil Is A Faceless Stranger,Living In A Distant NeighborhoodEvil Has A Wholesome, Hometown FaceWith Merry Eyes And An Open SmileEvil Walks Among Us, Wearing A MaskWhich Looks Like All Our Faces

ooc:He's holding on to the posts holding the tent up so his imprents of his feet can't be seen.

Dekkrokh smiled as he had as much information to get back and tell Greame and Sentinel what their plan was.He jumped from the tent silently and ran back to his horse quietly and saddle up and rode off into the woods heading back to the encampment quielty so he would not end up like Akuma.

He looked at the man and smiled as he said. "They are planning on attacking the imperial city, that's all I know from what two of their leading officers said when I was sneaking around gathering information." He said as he looked at Seninel and smiled a mischallaneous smile under his mask. "Where are you going?" He asked as he got off his horse and walked up to him.

He smirked as he whistled out to his men yelling as loudly as he could."To Calan."The calvary started to gallop going around the mercenary as Sentinel looked back down at the mercenary."To Calan."He said more quitly and galloped away quickly, getting ahead of his men once more

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Evil Is A Faceless Stranger,Living In A Distant NeighborhoodEvil Has A Wholesome, Hometown FaceWith Merry Eyes And An Open SmileEvil Walks Among Us, Wearing A MaskWhich Looks Like All Our Faces

"So the Ogres plan to march on Calan. They are in for a surprise." Graeme said. He made his way down to the area where the Grey company rested as the Rangers and the mercenary departed with their forces. "Captain, ready the men to ride, and ride hard. We are going to make for the capital before these monsters do."

"Banner captain, maintain the fortress here, reinforcements will come as soon as they can." he addressed the captain of the Silver Boars. He mounted his horse, a hearty grey saddlebred, and gave the stallion his spurs.

The mounted company joined him quickly, forming into ranks and moving out of the fortress in a long serpent. It would be a long ride to the capital, but he had to be there, he to be instrumental in the defeat of the ogres is he was to become the next emperor of Calan. There could be no other fate.

Sentinel galloped his horse hard as he yelled out orders to his men to get into ranks. One in which the front would be a hard phalanx and the flanks would be swordsmen only with the back being archers. If Sentinel could get the Imperial Airforce ready they would have a surprise for the ogres indeed, especially if the airships already had the artillery mounted on them

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Evil Is A Faceless Stranger,Living In A Distant NeighborhoodEvil Has A Wholesome, Hometown FaceWith Merry Eyes And An Open SmileEvil Walks Among Us, Wearing A MaskWhich Looks Like All Our Faces

Snake Tail marched at the head of the Ogre column,sparing an occasional glance for the unconcious human scout who lay strapped to the back of the hulking warrior who walked beside him.It would be a full 5 hours before the humans woke from his narcotic induced slumber.Until then the horde would have too keep moving as quickly as possible towards Calan.The human would have to be interrogated on the move, allthough that would be a little akward.

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“I'm yet another resource-consuming kid in an overpopulated planet, raised to an alarming extent by Hollywood and Madison Avenue, poised with my cynical and alienated peers to take over the world when you're old and weak.” -Bill Watterson

Dekkrokh glanced back at the advancing army smiling as he saw the other mercenary strapped to the back of an ogre. He looked at Graeme and asked."Should I take out the other merc. before they can find out your plans?"